I had taken Derek to Mariscos el Güero on a Sunday morning. It is one of my favorite seafood street carts in Ensenada. We had both gotten the special tostada “La Güerita” for 135 pesos …
August 2, 2023
Back to profile
Stories by Matthew Suárez
< Newer
| Older stories >
Ensenada inspiration: searching for a song with Soupy Garbage Juice
Toros de Tijuana béisbol game: banda music, psychedelics, and Marco “el Raton” Astorga complete the night
Except for the World Series, I never cared much for baseball besides the World Series. That is, until September 15, 2016, when I discovered béisbol in Tijuana. I was with writer Justin O’Connell, Tijuana pseudo-celebrity …
June 21, 2023
Tijuana tour guide takes us to all the fish places he can find
I’ve been doing tours in Tijuana for more than 11 years. I remember my first client well. Back then, I announced my tours on Craigslist. Back then, my tours and Tijuana were much different than …
June 7, 2023
I work the taco truck of Anthony Bourdain's TJ guide
“I’m doing this guerrilla-style!” shouts Antonio Ley, also known as El Tony Tee, as I approach his taco truck. “We got kicked out because of the stupid bike lane last week, and I have to …
March 1, 2023
Tijuana's high-rises soar – and so do the rents
I moved into my first apartment in Tijuana in March of 2012. It was a nice one-bedroom place on the top floor of a three-story building in Colonia Cacho. It came unfurnished, except for a …
November 16, 2022
The Sentri pass, crossing at Otay, the annoying seagulls
In Tijuana, you ride the rollercoaster that is the city and then you wait in line to leave. The journey out of one of the most chaotic cities in the world culminates in an equally …
August 3, 2022
Matthew Suarez combs Ensenada for best seafood carts and breweries
“I always say that Mexicali is hell, Tijuana is purgatory, and Ensenada... well, Ensenada is paradise!” says Jesús “El Chino” Hernández, who runs Trophy Tacos, an experimental seafood tacos cart in a corner of Colonia …
February 16, 2022
New breweries make Tijuana unrecognizable from 10 years ago
Baja’s beer scene has grown exponentially since I first wrote about it for the Reader six years ago, and I’ve been obsessing over it ever since. Back in October of this year, at the most …
December 22, 2021
The unintended Baja Med escapade
I met “Border Chef” Andrea Aguari — the title is her own — a decade ago when she was cooking for the short-lived Taberna Etxeverri on Calle Sexta. We hadn’t spoken in years when I …
August 25, 2021
Three checkpoints, seven hours south of Tecate
We arrived at Punta Final Saturday at dawn after an arduous seven-hour trip. We left Tecate before midnight after packing the green Durango with camping gear and a shit ton of beer. The driver, a …
January 27, 2021
79 days of Tijuana quarantine
“I don’t think we’ll be opening the bar until September or until there is a vaccine,” says Dany aka ‘Drago,’ founder of Dragon Rojo Rockbar and a hospital worker by trade. “I keep the bar …
June 19, 2020
118 deaths in Baja due to the virus
“You know my brother and I got it, right?” My friend Mariana texted me a few weeks ago after I posted the story about the coronavirus piñatas. Mariana’s brother, Juan, is my private doctor in …
April 27, 2020
What to do when they stop making Heineken and Modelo
As soon as the news hit, we received ten orders,” says Carlos Macklis owner of Norte Brewing Co. “We stopped producing but we are still selling our beer. I’m acting as the delivery boy driving …
April 3, 2020
Tijuana tangos with corona
“It’s a huge mess of disinformation,” says the co-owner of one of the new trendy restaurants in downtown Tijuana (we talked online, she prefers to remain anonymous). “My dad is over at city hall right …
March 27, 2020
Hunger made me imitate Michael Jackson
A Michael Jackson impersonator dances on the streets of Tijuana to the rhythm of idling motors and honking cars in heavy traffic areas around the city. People crossing the street shuffle around his act and …
March 25, 2020
Best Reader stories from 2016
Tijuana destroys Spanish and English “Tengo que ir hacer laundry, then I have to study en la biblioteca,” I’m paraphrasing what the Latina students in my college sounded like. My first real encounter with Spanglish …
March 22, 2020
Panic shopping spreads to Tijuana
“You look like a meme,” I told my friend Beto when I spotted him at the checkout line of my local Calimax with a cart full of toilet paper and paper towels on Friday the …
March 18, 2020
Reader writers attempt to tone up
High on fitness Patrick Henderson Pyles Peak Corner of Golfcrest and Navajo Drives Mission Trails Cowles Mountain is a very popular, very crowded hike — especially if you’re taking it from the Golfcrest/Navajo staging area. …
March 11, 2020
Fight Club: Las Pulgas
Las Pulgas is “el mejor lugar para bailar (the best place to dance),” according to their slogan. It is known as one of the bars that sell the most beer in all of Latin America; …
February 20, 2019
Tijuana is a meth
“¡Dame un peso!” frantically demands a homeless woman by aggressively knocking on car windows that stop in one of Tijuana’s busiest corners on Calle Segunda. Most drivers ignore her, shake their heads nervously, or move …
February 7, 2019
Two years of Mayor “The Feet”
“Human rights are for humans who do right” became the catchphrase of Tijuana’s mayor, Juan Manuel “El Patas” (The Feet) Gastélum Buenrostro, referring to the caravan of migrants. The news anchor for Univision, Jorge Ramos, …
January 2, 2019
Caravan reporters invade Tijuana
Chingue su madre todos esos Hondureños.” those were the first words I heard spoken over a loud speaking as I approached the area where the caravan of migrants arrived, Sunday, November 18th. The source of …
December 26, 2018
Tijuana desensitized to violence
“That was the scariest part, I walked by and didn’t even feel a thing,” commented my friend Luisa, after posting that there was a shooting in Calle Sexta in front of a popular bar on …
December 4, 2018
My Tijuana makes me happy
“Tijuana is much more than the cliches repeated by those that, carrying their prejudice, come and try to decipher it.” Those words of the late Rafa Saavedra (2013), one of Tijuana’s favorite writers, struck a …
November 8, 2018
Love for H-Town
Ahh, Houston! As soon as I landed, my shirt got stuck to my body as I breathed in that humid thick air. Siri told me that my week visiting Texas for my cousin’s wedding was …
October 27, 2018
Tijuana filmed in Tijuana
How embarrassing! I just looked out my balcony, all hungover and disheveled, to find un chingo de gente afuera,” (an f--- of a lot of people outside), comments Lalo, my neighbor from the building in …
September 5, 2018
The old rusty metal gate is gone
I remember the first time I crossed the border as a pedestrian from San Ysidro to Tijuana. It was early 2010, the pedestrian entry lay on the west side of the 5. It was a …
August 28, 2018
Tijuana’s most violent month in all its history
“The violence and crime in Tijuana has exceeded its own records and has imbued terror in a society, in which authorities have been surpassed and lack any leadership.” That’s how an extensive report of the …
August 8, 2018
Afternoon at the Nelson Bar
I met a 62-year-old man at Nelson Bar in Tijuana today. He said, “I like talking to white people, you white?” Sort of, I responded. “You look white! I know everything. Ask me anything. No. …
July 24, 2018
Mexico exits the World Cup
“Estoy muy triste,” said my friend Joey in his poor Spanish after Mexico got eliminated from the World Cup. Joey (with his date) drove at dawn from Little Italy to downtown Tijuana to live the …
July 9, 2018
Two hours from downtown TJ to bullring
“It started to rain!” commented Andrés “el Andy” Rodríguez, beertender and brewer at Madueño Brewing Co. I was perplexed. It didn’t rain in Tijuana or Playas the night before. “Not real rain, it started to …
June 7, 2018
#tijuana tacolife
Yes, I’m one of those people — when presented with an amazing plate, I’ll take out my cell phone. Hell, I’ll even take out my DSLR and take dozens of photos before having a bite. …
May 16, 2018
Landslide buries Tijuana neighborhood
There are neighborhoods in the hills of Tijuana that always seem to be on the verge of collapse. Narrow streets that lead up steep hills give you a sense of vertigo as you’re riding a …
April 18, 2018
Tijuana does Hollywood… again
Tijuana’s National Chamber of Commerce has unveiled its plan to build a Tijuana sign on the hill of Cerro Colorado similar to the famed Hollywood sign in Los Angeles. The proposed sign will be similar …
April 6, 2018
Tijuana's ambivalence toward marijuana
“I’ve been crossing weed [into Tijuana] since before it went [fully] legal,” says Jorge Fierro, a 23-year-old Mexican-American who resides in Tijuana. “Marijuana in Mexico is sh*tty and you don’t know what quality or how …
March 27, 2018
Maguana has gone to Heaven
Homeless Tijuana icon, Maria Luisa Castro, also known as “La Maguana,” passed away on March 21 at the age of 61. Ladened with mental diseases and infections like HIV and schizophrenia, Maria Luisa died in …
March 23, 2018
Tijuana morgue can't keep up
‘The smell doesn’t reach all the way to my house,” comments Diego Silverio, a writer and high school teacher who lives a couple blocks uphill from Tijuana’s morgue. “But [the smell] is unbearable when I …
March 14, 2018
Irish reporters seek out border-wall prototypes
“In Europe, all we hear is about Trump’s wall,” commented Eimear Lowe, an Irish reporter for RTÉ. “We came to Mexico to find out what people here have to say.” Lowe and Ken (her cameraman) …
February 19, 2018
Tijuana's Chiki Jai goes bye-bye
I never had a meal at the famed Tijuana restaurant Chiki Jai, and now I never will. The restaurant burned down on January 19th. Founded in 1947, Chiki Jai (“little party” in Basque) was a …
January 29, 2018
I deported myself to TJ
My friend Jaime crossed the border illegally in late 2015. He didn’t climb the fence, sneak through a tunnel, or swim around the wall. He walked up to the Otay gate and told a Customs …
January 24, 2018
Tijuana rain + garbage + rats = chaos
Many Tijuana residents woke up on Wednesday (January 10th) to find garbage in the streets and no running water in their homes. The state’s water utility, known by its initials CESPT, had planned to suspend …
January 11, 2018